Evernote: Worth the Increased Cost?

App costs are out of control – they usually don’t charge enough for what they offer. Lately, we are seeing a trend toward increased costs and Software as a Service (SaaS) models for supporting software development. In general, this is a good trend because we should be paying for the real cost of development.

I am a firm believer in paying a fair price for a service or product, especially if it brings value to my daily workflow. And not just paying some minimal amount, such as $1 in the App Store, but truly paying developers for the work they do to create something useful. Most recently, a piece of software I use daily switched to a SaaS model rather than an outright purchase. I had to give TextExpander a good long reconsideration because the increase in cost was significant. It wasn’t until they lowered it, based on consumer feedback, that I decided to go with the annual payment plan at a slightly higher cost. Though other options for this exist, I do use TextExpander daily on my laptop and iPhone so it was mostly a no-brainer.

Now another piece of software that I use daily has increased their annual subscription plan by 35% – from $45/year to $70/year. That’s a big jump!

I’ve happily been using Evernote since 2008 (though it took a couple years to get it into my workflow) and began paying for a Premium Plan in 2012. I loved the tool so much, I offered workshops at Santa Barbara City College. Back in 2013, I had the good fortune to meet Phil Liben, co-founder of Evernote (and current Chairman) only to discover a person who is kind and passionate about being human and developing great software. So, it’s not just another software company.

Earlier this month I was at a conference and Evernote became super handy. I could snap a photo of a business card, have it recognize the contact fields, populate to LinkedIn, and let me send my contact information right back to the person’s card I just received. Super Awesome! The fact I can dump pretty much anything into the app and it can read, index, and make it searchable is of immense value. Every tweet I favorite gets dumped into Evernote. Entire webpages and articles can be added to Evernote with the web clipper – no more bookmarking needed. And did I mention that it’s all searchable? Immediate and consistent syncing between my iPhone, iPad, desktop, and laptop.

What to do? I use Evernote everyday and I would definitely miss it. Of course, there are several other options in this market space that could meet the same needs for a much lower cost – including free. My subscription isn’t up for renewal until December, so I have some time to decide.

Are you a paying Evernote customer? What are your plans for the future with this type of software?